Imprisoned Saudi writer Raif bin Muhammad Badawi was on my mind this week, as he often is when questions of free speech arise.
He was arrested in 2012 and faced the death penalty over charges of apostasy. Lucky for him, he was only sentenced to a decade in prison, torture, 1000 lashes and a fine. The then 25-year-old husband and father of three dared question why Saudi women needed a male guardian to walk down the street or indeed why all Saudis were required to believe in Islam on a website he set up to foster a discussion of liberalism.
Amnesty International, for what it’s worth, determined he was “a prisoner of conscience, detained solely for peacefully exercising his right to freedom of expression”.
Odah s son says the prominent scholar was handcuffed when he appeared in court on Sunday
Odah has spent three years in solitary confinement after being detained for a tweet calling for reconciliation between Saudi Arabia and Qatar (AFP) By Published date: 15 March 2021 12:43 UTC | Last update: 1 week 2 days ago
Imprisoned Saudi scholar Salman al-Odah attended a closed trial on Sunday in Saudi Arabia after spending years in solitary confinement.
The 63-year-old cleric was handcuffed during the court session in Riyadh, which was speedily adjourned and scheduled to take place again in four months, according to his son Abdullah Aloudh.
Odah was first detained in September 2017 after tweeting a prayer for reconciliation between Saudi Arabia and Qatar, three months after Riyadh, Abu Dhabi and Manama launched a blockade against the emirate.
Spurious charges : Women s activist Loujain al-Hathloul appears before Saudi terror court
UN expert following trial says she is extremely alarmed by Hathloul s prosecution in terror court, which she says is based on false charges
Undated handout picture released on Facebook page of Saudi activist Loujain al-Hathloul shows her at beach (AFP/file photo) By Published date: 10 December 2020 23:02 UTC | Last update: 3 months 3 weeks ago
Imprisoned Saudi women s rights activist Loujain al-Hathloul appeared before a Saudi terrorism court on Thursday as she faces what United Nations experts called spurious charges.
Hathloul, 31, was arrested in May 2018 with about a dozen other women activists just weeks before a historic lifting of a decades-long ban on female drivers.